


Into the Future and Back Again

by RoseThorn14



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Lesbian Vanya Hargreeves, M/M, Protective Number Five | The Boy, Time Travel Fix-It, Vanya Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Vanya Hargreeves-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:08:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25161391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseThorn14/pseuds/RoseThorn14
Summary: On that fateful day, Vanya decided to follow Five out of the house?She just wanted to convince her brother to come home before he got in trouble. She didn't expect to end up in the apocalypse.Somehow, she'd made the best possible decision - it changed the future.----A TUA fix it fic that has been sitting in my documents for a while.
Relationships: Dave/Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Eudora Patch, Diego Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves/Eudora Patch, Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Vanya Hargreeves, Vanya Hargreeves/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 410
Collections: The umbrella academy





	1. Chapter 1

Little Vanya Hargreeves had never been special. Not once in her thirteen year old life could she recall being described as anything other than ordinary.

She was always stuck half a step behind. No special powers, like her siblings. Not as pretty as Allison. Not daring like Diego or Luther. Not charming like Klaus. Not nearly as smart as Five, not even as smart as Ben really. Just… ordinary.

But, Vanya did think she knew how to read her father, and she could tell he wouldn't budge on this. So, in a rare show of certainty, she shook her head at Five as he argued with their father about time travel for the third time that month. Vanya normally wouldn't be this decisive; breaking through the haze of numbness that permeated her every moment, both waking and sleeping, was no small task.

But Vanya didn't want Five to get in trouble. He was the nicest to her, even though she wouldn't exactly describe him as nice. He would sit with her while she tried to navigate her way on the violin - he said the music helped him work on whatever calculations he did in his book. They may not talk all that much, but he still spent more time with her than any of her other siblings and he didn't actively attack her like Diego, Luther and, occasionally, Allison did.

So, she tried to stop him. He glanced at her, their eyes meeting. Then promptly ignored her. Vanya knew enough from reading books to know that she should have been annoyed at that. Instead, she only felt a dull waver from the numbness that might have been something, but was definitely not intense enough to be called anger.

And then, suddenly, Five was running out of the room. Vanya instinctively knew that he was heading for the front door. A cold shard of ice struck her heart. Five was running away.

Her heartbeat sped up as she felt the closest thing to an emotion that she had in a long time. In fact, the last time she remembered feeling something this intense was the day she ran away. Around two years ago, when she was eleven, Vanya had been feeling depressed, had been having nightmares for the past few months about dark rooms and being alone and had had been made fun of particularly viscously by Luther, whilst none of her siblings came to the rescue. So, figuring no one would miss her that much, she had run away.

Diego, who she had been quite close with at the time, since the boy suffered from a nervousness that often earnt him their father's scorn, had found out about her plans, and decided to join her.

She didn't actually remember much about her punishment; she imagined it involved a lot of yelling and long lectures from her father and disappointed looks from Mr Pogo and Mum. No, the only she could accurately recall was the haze that followed her little escapade. She hadn't wanted to do much of anything since then. She wasn't as upset by her sibling's teasing and it didn't hurt as much when they dismissed her to play without her. Some days she didn't even want to play violin, and ever since her father had allowed her to touch the old instrument, it had been her favourite thing to do.

Vanya knew her father would not be easy on Five when he caught him. She didn't want to see him get punished. So, she ran out of the room after him.

She followed Five out of the door and caught a hold of the edge of his blazer just as he made his first jump.

Vanya faltered when the scenery around them suddenly changed, the sky brightening and the trees changing colour. In her shock, she allowed Five's blazer to slip through her fingers. He kept running on, apparently not feeling her behind him, and Vanya was forced to sprint to catch up, just managing to brush her fingers against his back in time to go with him on his next jump.

The cat and mouse game kept up for a few more jumps before Five abruptly stopped, causing her to crash into him.

He spun around, his eyes widening when he saw her.

"Vanya? What-"

He gave a small gasp. "This is your fault!"

Vanya frowned, looking around at the fallen buildings and wreckage around her.

"What happened?" she asked, her voice straining as her mood approached somewhere near distressed. "Where are we?"

Five scowled as he walked over to a newspaper stand.

"We should be exactly where we started. It's what time we are that you really should be wondering."

Vanya quietly thought that they must have gone a very long way into the future if they were in a time where the world looked like _this._

Suddenly, Five jerked, sprinting off in what Vanya thought was the direction of the Academy. Or where the Academy used to be. Vanya frowned, suddenly worried as she jogged after him, but not before glancing at the newspaper that had so upset her brother. When her eyes flitted to the date, Vanya knew why he had been so panicked. 

She started running after him, eventually finding him standing in the rubble of their home, staring at the bodies of most of their siblings. 

Vanya walked up to them, studying each of their faces, which were so different, yet so similar. 

The first she identified was Allison. As the only woman, it was easy. Her sister had only gotten more beautiful as she got older, and was wearing finely made clothes that must be designer. Vanya wondered if she fulfilled her dream of becoming a movie star, but silently thought that she would have. Number Three could do anything, or, more accurately, she could make anyone else do anything. 

The next Vanya recognised was Klaus. He was the only one of her brothers that would dare wear eyeliner, and she couldn’t picture any of the others getting that many tattoos. He was still thin, and, from the bags under his eyes, not taking care of himself. She hoped that he hadn't fallen too far down the hole of addiction, but knew that it wasn't likely that it hadn't happened. 

Luther caused her to pause, his body having grown to an almost grotesque point, his shoulders and arms weirdly shaped in a way that made Vanya uncomfortable. 

She moved on quickly, her eyes landing on Diego. The sight of Number Two, clad in leather, a scar one side of his head, his body cold and lifeless deeply unsettled her. There was a time when he was, perhaps, her favourite sibling, maybe even closer to her than Five. Then, the events of two (or was it nineteen?) years ago had changed that. Some distant emotion tugged at her, causing her gut to twist. Her hand spasmed towards her pill bottle, downing a few, frowning as the remaining ones rattled loudly. Hopefully Five could get them back quickly. Then she wouldn't have to look at them.

There was only one missing…

"Where's Ben?" she asked, looking around. 

Five didn't answer, a muscle in his jaw twitching as he continued to stare straight ahead. 

"How could it have only been seventeen years?" she tried again. 

"I don't know!" Five yelled back. 

"Can we go back?"

Five just glared at her, storming off down the street. Vanya didn't follow him, instead sitting down and continued to stare hollowly at her fallen siblings. 

Her brother returned ten minutes later, two shovels in his hands, one of which, he tossed unceremoniously at her. 

"We should bury them."

Vanya hesitated, but eventually nodded, standing up. 

That was the last time they would talk for almost four hours. 

Once they had finished the morbid job, Five had snapped at her to leave him alone and had plonked himself down on a rock, pulling out a few pieces of paper and a pencil he had managed to scrounge up. That was when she started to consider that he might not know exactly how to get them back.

Vanya had wondered back a few metres towards their house, beginning to shift the rubble and see if anything from her childhood (which was simultaneously two hours and almost two decades ago) had survived. 

When the sun finally went down, Vanya returned to the little space Five had carved out in the mess. She dragged over a few blankets and cans that she'd managed to find from a nearby building that hadn't completely collapsed (but there had been a tipped over vending machine with a body underneath and a knocked over fridge with an arm poking out, neither of which she had been brave enough to go near. 

Five had gathered a few dozen unopened water bottles and started a fire during her absence and Vanya used a knife to open her can of soup, and slurp it down cold, too tired and hungry to bother heating it up. Five did the same with his own food, holding his paper to the light, squinting as he looked over his equations. 

Vanya curled up in front of the fire, a few feet away from Five, who looked over at her, frowning. 

"What are you doing?" he asked, 

Vanya furrowed her eyebrows. 

"Come over here," Five ordered. Vanya did so, still confused. 

"We need to conserve body warmth," Five told her gruffly, and Vanya just shrugged. 

He made sense, but she was mostly glad to have someone with her. It was too quiet here. 

She noticed that Five didn't protest when she slung her arm around him. 

\----

On day three, Vanya ran out of her pills. 

She was sweating and pale by the end of the time the sun went down. 

On day four, she started throwing up and didn’t stop. 

By day seven, thankfully, she was mostly recovered, and able to resume her self-given job, of trying to find something valuable in the remains of the Academy. 

On day eight, Five decided to leave. 

He said he was just going few jumps to see what the rest of the world looked like. Vanya actually argued with him over that one. They had their first fight. There was tears (from Vanya) and shouting (from Five), but in the end, he left.

He didn't return for over two hours, and, when he did, Vanya strode up to him, shoving him before he could even get his bearings.

"You said twenty minutes, you…you asshole!"

Five glared at her. 

"Don't yell at me! This is your fault. You messed up my calculations. I would have been fine without you."

Vanya felt her cheeks heat up as tears stung her eyes. "Father said you weren't ready! You shouldn't have even attempted it! I was trying to stop you."

"What would you know? You don't have powers. You're not one of us! You're just normal."

Five looked like he immediately regretted his words. He took a half step forward, reaching out towards Vanya, but she drew back, a few tears falling down her face. 

She backed up a few steps, her sadness quickly turning to anger as she stared at Five's face. It was like her hearing tunnelled, only focusing on Five's stuttering apologies, and how mad they made her. The sound rattled around her head, pushing in around her until she let out a furious, wordless, shout. Coincidentally, a building behind Five collapsed, the very foundations crumbling in a loud bang.

Five jumped, spinning around to face it, before he glanced back at her. 

"We should probably think about moving," he suggested. "It might not be safe camping near this many old buildings."

He reached out to grab her arm, no doubt to start steering her to wherever he wanted to go, but Vanya tore out of his grip. 

"No! You don't get to just brush that off!" she yelled.

"Out of all of them, I thought I could trust you," she accused, feeling her breathing speed up as she got more and more angry. "But you're just like them. You never-"

"Vanya!" Five shouted, interrupting her.

"What?"

But Five wasn't looking at her. Instead, his gaze was swivelling around them. Vanya followed his eyes, floating as she saw everything in their little camp floating about a foot off the ground. 

"Vanya. I think you have powers."


	2. Chapter 2

Five scowled as Vanya started up yet another rant.

"I'm telling you. I don't trust her. There's something… off about her."

Five rolled his eyes. "I'm just saying. We can't know when I'll figure out how to get us out of here. It's been nine years, V."

"And I'm saying I'd rather be stuck here than accept her offer. She obviously has some ulterior motive."

"Yeah. Her motive is to get us to work for her. Think about it, my intellect and powers and your brute force would make for a great duo. What else would she want?"

"A whole lot of things! I bet a company dedicated to preserving the timeline wouldn't want us stopping the apocalypse. Maybe she wanted to snatch us up before you made a breakthrough. And I'm telling you that we're close. Your equations are starting to resemble the few bits that Father described in his journal."

Five huffed, but chose not to point out that he had thought he was close many times, but had always failed. "Well, I'll never get it done if we don't find a camp."

It was Vanya's turn to roll her eyes as she threw down her pack. "Let's just stop here, then. It's not like we'll find a better place. Sit. Get us out of here. I want to talk to someone besides you."

She picked up her violin case, which they'd found about fifty days into their stay in the apocalypse, after they'd already moved away from the academy, and walked off with a huff.

Five rolled his eyes again and put a cushion on the nearest rock big enough to sit on.

\----

Five thought he'd reacted remarkably well to learning his sister had powers. She had called him overbearing, but making a training schedule for her was perfectly reasonable.

Twenty days into their stay in the apocalypse, Vanya had moved a big section of wall with her powers, uncovering a half-rotting body, with one eye and a journal clutched in his hand. Five had found no ID on the body, but what they had found in the journal more than made up for it.

There was sections on all of them, but 4,5,6 and 7's were noticeably larger, with Vanya's being the biggest, followed closely by Klaus'.

On the page where Reginald had detailed his plan to supress Vanya's powers, were the words in different ink and handwriting 'Find her. If unable, go to plan B.'

Five privately agreed that Vanya could destroy the world if she wanted (even though it was already destroyed), despite her protests, but he dreaded what plan B was if it looked like this.

Over time, their powers grew. It was no wonder since they had nothing much else to do but practice. Five had learnt how to teleport with people (or at least Vanya) as well as all manner of objects, and Vanya's telekinetic powers had grown; she had almost perfect control of them, as well as the weather manipulation abilities she'd discovered.

If Five was being honest with himself, Vanya was the thing he was the most grateful for in his life. He didn't like thinking about what would have happened if she wasn't there. He'd probably have been having full conversations with Delores (the mannequin that Vanya and him carried around as a joke, sought of like a mascot) - he'd might have even fallen in love with her. Vanya liked to tease him that he would have.

It hadn't been easy. God knows it hadn't been easy. Especially in those first few months. Vanya had been so angry when she'd read the journal. And she'd never felt anger before, or at least not in a very long time - they're father (no, Reginald, both of them had agreed to call him that) had seen to that. That, combined with her powers, had not made for a fun time. Five frequently had to jump away from her when the buildings started shaking around her and pieces of rubble started flying around dangerously.

Things got both better and worse when she got her violin. On one hand, the music helped her gain a new level of control over her powers, giving her something to focus on, but on the other hand, it had amplified her powers. Watching her get lost in the music whilst she was angry and seeing shockwaves of power literally burst out of her in a way that was both terrifying and entrancing was the first time that Five truly believed that she could have been the one to do this to the world.

Five stared after his sister the haunting notes of the Phantom of the Opera floated towards him a wave of affection welling up in him despite the fight they just had, and overpowering the mood altering effects of her power, which he could feel slightly, even from this distance. He didn't know what he would do without her.

He turned back towards his equations, which he had been working on for almost an hour.

He froze.

He could be onto something. The equations weren't exact but Five thought he could do it. Well, maybe. At least they wouldn't be here anymore.

He closed his eyes, reaching out his powers. Unlike when he was teleporting through space, which was purely instinctual, jumping in time required some forethought - at least that's what he'd learnt since his last disastrous escapade. He reached out with his powers, feeling them pause, before they broke through the barrier that kept time linear. They sored ahead, before he forced his sense backwards, feelings as if he was trudging through mud until… there! A bright spot, an island of weeds in the sea of thick liquid. A place where time was interrupted, where someone had messed with reality.

That must have been him, when he jumped with Vanya.

Five jerked as his mind snapped back to his body.

"V!" he yelled as he leapt to his feet.

The violin trailed off and a few moments later, Vanya appeared from around a bend.

"What?" she asked, her voice still tinged with frustration.

"I think I got it."

Vanya gaped for three seconds before a slow smile spread across her face.

"I told you so."

Five scowled, turning to pick up his still packed backpack, which had the sum total of his and Vanya's belongings.

Vanya put her violin away, where it sat on top of Reginald's journal as well as a book of blank music staves. She pulled her trench coat tighter around herself and stepped closer to Five, hooking her arm around his neck to keep his hands free.

"Should we take Delores?" he asked.

Vanya scrunched her nose. "It might be a bit hard to explain."

Five wilted a bit. He knew she was being the rational one, but he couldn’t help it.

Vanya's lips twitched. "But we could afford to take the boa."

Five beamed at his sister, bending down to slide the lime green feather boa off the mannequin's neck and wrap it around Vanya.

"Bye Delores," they both said in sink.

"Let's go home," Vanya murmured with a content sigh.

Five nodded _. Let's stop the apocalypse._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is this premise? I've had it sought of partially done in my documents for a while. 
> 
> Do you want to see more?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Get ready for historical inaccuracies!

They stumbled out onto an overcast street.

Vanya looked around, squinting slightly as she registered the rain pouring down around her. They were outside a tall wire fence, with old brick buildings clustered in the field.

"This isn't home," Vanya murmured.

"Astounding observation, Number Seven. Truly amazing observational skills."

Vanya glared at him and was about to snap back when a light came on from somewhere in the compound.

A man walked up the fence from a small metal, box like structure.

"Are you the new recruits?" he asked, his rough voice revealing his age. "I thought you guys were being redirected to Bletchley Park."

Five and Vanya glanced at each other, Vanya quickly ripping off the boa and shoving it into Five's pack.

"They said they could spare us for here," Vanya called out, still squinting into the lights.

"Well," the man said. "They must have decided you two were smart enough for Renfield."

His silhouette disappeared back into the box, and the floodlights turned off before the gate was opening with a rattling creak.

"Only the cream of the crop get sent this way," the man said as he emerged from the box, the light on the outside illuminating him enough for them to see his old, stooped frame.

The man looked them up and down. "I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures."

He started walking away, gesturing for them to follow.

"My name is Dale Wetherton, I'm the groundskeeper at this compound, but I've had to pick up the night shift since Dick went and got pneumonia."

He lead them towards a three story building, the evenly placed windows sought of reminding Vanya of the Academy.

"All of our staff are housed in the same building. We expect you to refrain from any inappropriate activities or to at least be discreet about it if you do decide to enter a sexual relationship with another recruit. Although, I believe you two already have that covered."

Both Five and Vanya jumped to correct that.

"No, we're siblings!" Five assured him.

All Vanya could muster was a disgusted, "Ew!"

Mr Wetherton shook his head, giving a laugh. "No offence intended, I just wanted to see the dynamic between you two."

Five and Vanya glanced at each other again as they entered the building, climbing all the way to the top floor.

"Be at the mess hall by 7:45AM, sharp. Daily assignments and rosters are handed out over breakfast. Do as your told. Keep your head down. Don't go blabbing to anyone. When you go down to the town, tell them we're just researchers, a communications and armour design centre."

He handed them two pads as they stopped in front of the two rooms.

"We of course don't expect you to have any papers with you. Whatever records there were of you would have been burnt before you arrived. As of right now, you don't exist. You will, of course, be properly re-established in society after the war is over. Fill out these forms and turn them in at breakfast. You'll be evaluated tomorrow and then we'll decide where to put you - comms interception, design or experimentation."

He turned to leave before glancing back at them. "Oh, and there is one more tenant on your floor at the moment. He's at the other end. Don't bother him."

With that, he was walking off, back down the staircase.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Five asked.

"Yeah, you took us to World War Two instead of two thousand and two. How the hell did that happen?"

"I don't know. I sensed a time anomaly here. A big one. The only thing that could have interrupted reality like that would be someone messing with time. Excuse me if I thought that the first one I would find was the only recorded instance of time travel without a machine that we know of!"

"So you're saying that someone here is messing with time?"

Five nodded. "And we've just been handed the perfect opportunity to find out who and how."

Vanya hesitated before she answered. "Alright. I guess it's better than where we were. But still work on the equations. I've never heard about this place before so it might get bombed at some point."

Five shrugged. "I mean, we probably never heard about this place because it’s a shady secret government facility. I mean, it seems even more locked down than Bletchley Park and that shit didn’t get uncovered until after the war. Don't worry, the reason we haven't heard about it is because it _won't_ get bombed. Maybe." 

Vanya snorted and leaned in to get a hug from her brother. "I love you."

"I love you too. Have fun sleeping in an actual bed for once."

"I know. It's going to be weird."

A beat of silence. "Well, good night I guess."

"Good night."

Vanya closed the door being her, setting down her violin and looking around the bare room. It wasn't much, but it was more than she'd had in almost a decade.

Despite the luxury, Vanya had troubles sleeping. She'd gotten used to listening to Five's breathing, the warmth of his body against her back as she fell asleep.

They'd never done anything sexual. Vanya didn't know about Five, but she suspected he might not have the same urges that many other men did, or if he did, they weren't as strong. A book Vanya had read in one of the many libraries they had come across called it asexuality.

Vanya herself was uncertain if she had experienced attraction to the same degree others did. There had been times when Vanya relieved her urges in the privacy of an abandoned building, when Five was distracted with his equations, but they had never been triggered by any image of an attractive man.

They had slept beside each other every night for the past nine years. Even when they were fighting.

Still, neither of them entered the other's room. They couldn't afford to get caught. Not when they had already announced they were siblings. The last thing they needed were rumours like that floating around.

The next morning, Five looked better than he usually did. Both of them had gotten up early to shower, washing years of grime off them and finally being able to clean up properly. Five had shaved, and styled his hair, whilst Vanya had actually brushed her own and pinned it back in a bun.

"V," she greeted with a nod as he slid into the seat across from her.

"V," grunted in response setting his tray down and digging in.

The woman beside Vanya who had introduced herself as Annalise, and apparently flitted between buildings, helping where she was needed with maths and other logical problems turned to them.

"Where do you think you guys will end up?"

Vanya shrugged, suppressing a moan as she savoured the taste of eggs and toast. Oh god it was so good.

"I don't know."

"Yeah," Five added on. "Our skills are pretty eclectic."

"Eclectic? Is that code for bad?" the red-headed man sitting next to Five asked.

Vanya frowned. "No. Five's a wiz at maths and science. A real genius."

"And Vanya's great at languages, and decoding patterns."

"Alright. Alright," the guy said, holding up his hands. "It was just a friendly jab."

"I'm Carson," he introduced his Scottish accent coming out thick. "I'm think you can guess where I'm from, even though we're not allowed to say."

"We can properly introduce ourselves when we win the war, or when we're being invaded. For now, we work," Annalise stated firmly.

Carson raised his glass of water to her. "Aye, we do."

They were ushered them over to Dr Glover, the head of the compound, who greeted them tersely before sending them off to a day of testing. They got a half hour break at lunch, where they ate a sandwich on a bench together, before they had another few hours of testing, covering languages, maths, science, basic logic, and pattern recognition.

Vanya didn't like it, and she could tell that Five didn't either. It stung too much like they're days at the Academy, even though it wasn't a competition.

Both of them were buzzing with anxious energy at breakfast the next morning. Annalise and Carson sat next to them again, both noticing their discomfort.

"It's alright, lads," Carson assured them. "You've already got in."

"Yeah. They won't kick you out now, not after you've found out about all this stuff," Annalise added.

Dr Glover walked up to them, clipboard in hand.

"Ah, yes. The siblings," he said, glancing down. "Very impressive forms, with test results to back them up I see."

"Miss Hargreeves," he said turning to her. "It seems you'll be mostly in the communications department. Your language comprehension and auditory reception and analysis were exemplary. You'll be spending the morning in foreign translation, then you'll go with Miss Green after lunch and head to Management."

"Mister Hargreeves, please report to Block C, you'll be in design and experimentation."

When Dr Glover had walked away, Carson turned to Five, whilst Annalise grabbed Vanya's arm.

"It looks like you'll be with me!" Annalise exclaimed, squeezing and causing something funny to flutter in Vanya's chest.

"And you're in the really interesting place," Carson informed Five. "I've been there in a few times to do maintenance and let me tell, they've got some serious stuff going on in there."

Five looked immediately intrigued, whilst Vanya beamed. This was definitely an improvement from a few days ago.

The morning wasn't too exciting, with Vanya slogging away at translating Russian and German transmissions that mostly ended up being trivial, and half of them not even to do with politics or military.

The afternoon, however, changed things up to say the least. Annalise picked her up at lunch time, sharing the time with her like Five had done the day before, before taking her to a large, Victorian-style house.

"This is where the magic happens," Annalise announced, opening the door and revealing a rather ordinary hallway.

"Okay…" Vanya said.

Annalise let out a laugh. "Come on."

She lead Vanya through the maze-like house, stopping outside a door and plugging in a code into a thick panel, which instead of opening the door, only slid away to reveal a lock. Annalise then withdrew a black key from a chain around her neck, using that to open the door to reveal a winding staircase that lead downwards.

At the bottom, there was another code, but this time with no second lock and then Vanya was entering a, surprisingly spacious, bunker-like room, where four other people - three men and two women - were sitting. They all gave half-hearted greetings before turning back to their work.

"This is the code making and breaking lounge."

"I thought Block A and Bletchley were on code-breaking?"

"Yeah, with machines. The higher ups think it isn't going fast enough so have tasked some of us to see if we can try and break it ourselves. They also want us to continuously generate codes to communicate research and invention progress, we'll put the answer on one frequency and the actual message on another that is randomly generated between us and the facility in London every day."

She handed Vanya a set of headphones and a few pieces of paper with a transcript.

"Get to work."

It was difficult, but Vanya enjoyed the way the puzzles pushed her mind. A few years prior, Five had gotten bored and had only communicated to her by code if it wasn't essential, gradually increasing the difficulty until Vanya started giving him codes back, and they got sick of not actually talking. She hadn't realised that she'd missed that sought of academic stimulation.

Though, her mood did plummet when Five didn't join her at dinner. She bowed out of the socialisation that apparently usually happened in the hall over whatever desert that the kitchen had scrounged out and spent the evening playing her violin as quietly as possible, glad that she was on a separate floor to most others.

Five entered her room a few hours later, dodging the shoe and pillow that Vanya flicked his way with her powers.

"Where were you?" she snapped.

"I found it!" Five said instead of properly answering. "I know where the time anomaly is happening."

Vanya relaxed, putting her violin back in its case as she sat on her bed and gave him her full attention.

Five waited for her to get comfortable before grinning.

"There's a scientist in Block C - Dr Henderson, who is actually the other tenant on our floor - who is making a time machine. And he's actually making headway."

Vanya's eyes widened, and Five's grin got wider.

"The man is so paranoid that other time travellers from the future are gonna stop him before he's finished that he made a machine that created an interruption in the time-space continuum that will make it super hard for anyone with a time machine to latch onto this time period."

He paused and Vanya made him wait for a few seconds before she asked the question she knew he wanted her to. (She had found, that unlike when they were young, and Five got frustrated by every little aspect of his explanations that she didn't pick up, her brother had become reliant on her asking questions or picking holes in his theories, even if her observations were often less nuanced or only scratching the surface of his thought process.)

"So how'd you get us here?" she asked in an almost deadpan voice.

Five's lips twitched, like he didn't know whether to smile or frown, before he went on. "Because my powers don't work like a machine. They're more fluid, just as sense-based as they are mathematical."

"Like my powers."

Five nodded. "The instinctual, fluidic aspect of my powers give me a versatility that machines do not have."

"But they also mean you lack the precision they do."

Five grimaced but gave another nod to concede her point.

"I think I can learn a lot from him. I might even be able to hammer the equations out sooner whilst I'm working with him."

Vanya frowned, recognise the statement for what it truly was, a question. Would she be okay with staying here for some time instead of going back to her siblings?

She thought about what she'd done that day, feeling actually useful for the first time in her life, and about Annalise, who had seemed genuinely interested in getting to know her in a way that no one but Five had done before.

Vanya shrugged. "I'd be okay with staying here. It's a hell of a lot better than 2019."

Five let a smile slip onto his face as he leaned forward to hug his sister, before he started gushing about the technology he'd just seen.

\----

They ended up staying there longer than they'd expected, with Five trying to figure out if he could jump them to a specific date that they'd both agreed on.

He would disappear for most of each day, and come to dinner with a shit-eating grin on his face, high on the rush of creative genius he had been surrounded with, sometimes Dr Henderson even joined him, shaky and paranoid, but obviously proud of Five in a fatherly way Reginald never managed to exude.

Vanya, herself wasn't doing too badly.

About two weeks into their stay, Carson and Annalise caught her playing the violin when they went to return a pencil to her after dinner.

The next night, Vanya was cajoled into performing at dinner, which was a much more informal affair than breakfast. It was so well-received that she became an at least twice-weekly feature, and was also asked to play whenever someone wanted to get a gathering of the staff together.

Vanya and Five went out with the crew every Saturday night, sticking close with Annalise, who Vanya now spent almost every day with, and Carson, who was more and more often being called into Cell Block C to oversee any mechanical issues. They would visit the bars or diners in the small town near the compound, being greeted enthusiastically by the vendors who were happy for their business.

It was about three months into their stay when everything went wrong.

Annalise and Vanya were sitting in one of the darker booths of the bar that was mostly shielded from view. Out on the makeshift dancefloor, Carson was dancing with the woman who ran the grocer whilst Five was destroying some of the more arrogant weapons designers in some math challenge.

Vanya and Annalise were coming down off the high of a new discovery. Dr Glover had given them both warm congratulations on the new music-based code system they had designed that would help to completely hide their information from the enemy.

Vanya laughed as Annalise wiped off yet another bit of chocolate from her nose from the ice cream Sunday they'd both been sharing leaning into her friend as they squished together on the same seat, despite being the only ones in the booth.

"You know, I'm really glad you came here. I can't imagine this place without you," Annalise told Vanya, looking at her through her eye lashes.

"Me too," Vanya murmured, not moving away from Annalise. "I've really enjoyed working with you."

"It's more than that. I've loved getting to know you," Annalise insisted, her voice barely above a whisper.

Something in Vanya's heart swelled and suddenly she was leaning forward, her lips pressing against Annalise's in her first kiss ever.

A few seconds later, Vanya jerked away, her cheeks draining of colour as she realised what she'd done.

"I-I'm so sorry."

Annalise brushed a hand over Vanya's cheeks. "Don't be, my Composer."

And then she was leaning forward again, kissing Vanya more passionately than before, with Vanya responding in kind.

There were a lot of first times in the next few weeks. First date, first time sneaking out, first time having sex. Annalise explored every part of Vanya that had never come to light before and they fell hopelessly for each other.

Eventually, Vanya stopped asking Five about where he was at with his equations, scared that he would say that he had finally figured it out.

Another four months passed by, Vanya and Five steadily spreading more roots as they got more and more tied to the little world of the Renfield Research Compound. Annalise had walked Vanya all the way to her room on the top floor, pressing a brief kiss to her lips as Vanya went to pick up her violin before going to lunch with Five.

"See you later, honey. Make sure you aren't late. You know how grumpy Dr Henderson gets."

Vanya grinned. "We won't be."

They were.

They couldn't help it. They had so much less time together now, that when they did get time alone, the siblings liked to stretch it out as long as possible. Vanya and Five still completed their mandatory weapons and fitness practice together, but other than that, they only saw each other twice a day, which was a great deviation from literally constantly being each other for nine years.

There were exactly five minutes late as Five plugged in his code to the main entrance of Block C, Vanya following him as her and Annalise were scheduled to help analyse some of the data from one of Henderson's inventions that gathered data from the time continuum whilst also working on encoding a report Five had written up about their findings and progress.

They knew something was wrong as soon as they entered the building. The lights were flickering. Dr Henderson never let them do that. As soon as something happened, Dr Henderson was calling tech support to have his electricity fixed or the lights replaced.

Five and Vanya shared a worried look and Five immediately moved to a wooden panel in the wall, smashing through it and grabbing the rifle hidden behind, whilst tossing the pistol to Vanya.

They expertly loaded their weapons, creeping forward as one until they turned down the hall leading up to the labs.

There were three men in the hallway, facing the door to the lab. They were each wearing body armour and carrying weapons that wouldn't be invented for at least another ten years.

Out of the corner of her eye, Vanya saw Five press his lips together, obviously trying to think of a way around them without having to fire, and she rolled her eyes, splaying her hand out in front of her and causing each of them to crash into the walls with dull thuds, before they fell to the ground, unconscious.

Five looked at her, alarmed.

"Soundproofed, remember? They shouldn't have heard it."

Five frowned, obviously wanting to argue, but knowing they didn’t have time. He grabbed Vanya's hand, closing his eyes and teleporting them into a corner of a room, behind a tall machine.

"You shouldn't have been able to get it done so quick, old man," a voice was saying.

Vanya peered around the corner, seeing a man standing over Dr Henderson, who was bleeding profusely and three other agents looking in, one holding a briefcase that Vanya had only ever seen once before. 

Before Vanya could decide what to do, then man was speaking again.

"It's lucky we managed to break through your little barrier before blondie over there could send your research over. We wouldn't want this little secret getting out."

"P-please," a very familiar voice sobbed and Vanya's head turned to see Annalise lying on the floor just in time to see the bullet rip through her chest.

A scream tore its way out of Vanya's throat, and then the man standing over Dr Henderson, the one who had fired the gun, was being torn apart, Vanya's powers latching onto the shot still ringing through the air and streaking towards the focus of her anger.

The remaining agents jumped as their colleague's body essentially exploded.

One of them took a step forward, only to be flung back and impaled on one of the broken bits of metal from the wrecked machinery, and another having a piece of wreckage through his chest.

The last disappeared in a flash of light, but Vanya didn't pay much attention to that. She ran out from behind her cover, stumbling towards her lover and falling to her knees beside Annalise's body.

She put her hands on the wound, trying desperately to stem the blood flow.

"Anna," she sobbed. "Anna please. Wake up. You're fine. You'll be okay. We'll get you help."

Annalise sucked in a shuddering breath, her hazy gaze locking on Vanya. He brought a shaking hand to Vanya's cheek, smearing it with blood.

"It's alright, Vanya," Annalise whispered. "I know I'm not going to make it."

Vanya sobbed harder. "No. Don't say that. You're going to be okay."

"Shhhh. It’s okay." Annalise took another shaky breath, grimacing as she lifted her other hand and took her necklace off. She was sweating by the end of it as she pressed the chain with the key and a little pie pendant that Vanya had gotten for her into Vanya's hands. "Take this."

Vanya clenched her fist around the fine silver chain and Annalise' hand. "Please don't leave me."

Annalise smiled. "You know I love you, right?"

Vanya hesitated for only a moment. They had never said the words before, but they had both known it. She'd thought they'd have more time.

"I love you too. More than anything."

Annalise's eyes cut over to Five, who was standing over the man who had taken shrapnel to the stomach.

"You don't mean that."

Annalise's grip on Vanya's cheek and hand momentarily tightened. "I want you to be happy, you hear me? Stay strong."

Vanya nodded, tears streaming down her face.

"Kiss me one more time, my Composer?"

Vanya leant down.

She felt the moment Annalise's life left her, her grip loosening and her lips going stiff. Vanya pulled away, unable to suppress her sobs and pained moans.

Vaguely, she registered Five across the room, his boot on the man's wound.

"Who are you?" he asked fiercely.

The man let out a wet bark of laughter. "You’re the Hargreeves. You're not meant to be here."

"Who do you work for?"

Another pained laugh. "The T-Temps Commission are coming for you. You can't stop us."

The man dissolved into manic laughs that turned into coughs and Five pushed away from him, kicking him before he knelt beside Dr Henderson, who was slowly bleeding out.

"You have to go, my boy. Now."

"We can help you," Five told him.

"No. Carson managed to escape. People will be here soon. And they will return. They took the machine and destroyed my research. I won't be able to rebuild it."

"Don't say that. Of course you can. We were so close."

The man shook his head. "No. And I don't want you here for when they get back. Go. Return to your timeline."

"How did you-?"

The man gave a pained chuckle. "Of course I knew. You're not as good an actor as you believe. Neither of you."

Five stayed silent.

"Go," the man ordered, his voice firmer now, more urgent. "Now. You don’t have much time."

Five hesitated, before he nodded, scooping up Vanya's violin before he strode over to her.

"V?" he asked gently. "We have to go."

Vanya, who was staring hollowly at Annalise's body, nodded.

Five squeezed her shoulder, and then they were in their rooms. Vanya swallowed, shaking her head, before mechanically getting to work, stripping her bloody clothing off herself and packing her things, making sure Reginald's notebook, and the journal they kept to mark the days, were firmly in the compartment that Five built into her violin case.

Five reappeared in her room five minutes later, his own backpack clutched in his hand, and wearing the trench coat that they'd both worn all those months ago, green boa clutched in his hand for good luck.

"Will it work?" Vanya asked, clutching the still bloodied necklace, which she'd clasped around her neck.

Five frowned. "I'm not sure. I haven't had time to check the maths. But we don't have time."

Vanya nodded. She hadn't expected any different. She stepped closer to him, hooking her arms around his neck as Five wrapped them both in the feather boa.

And then they were gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Actual Plot Stuff goes down next chapter.
> 
> How did you like my little side story?


	4. Chapter 4

They appeared in a dark alley, both of them stumbling and bumping into the grimy wall.

"Ew," Five said, wrinkling his nose, before he glanced worriedly down at his sister.

Her eyes still held that hollow look that it had adopted after Annalise died. Not that he could blame her. It had happened less than ten minutes ago.

Five frowned. They had to keep moving. If he kept her focused, she wouldn't have time to shut down. He wouldn't have time to lose her.

"Come on," he beckoned, grabbing her hand. "Let's go."

They emerged onto a busy street, cart vendors and café's lining its outside whilst people walked down the road, moving quickly but not urgently.

Five immediately led Vanya over to a newspaper stall, peering at the date and smiling when he confirmed that they had landed when and where that they wanted.

"Excuse me?" he asked in French that his father had forced them all to study and that him and Vanya had honed over their years alone. "Is it possible if you could please tell me the exact time and where we are? I'm afraid our watches are broken."

The newspaper vendor looked disgruntled, but answered him gruffly, grumbling when they walked away without buying anything.

"We're a few blocks East of the Eiffel Tower," Five informed his sister, who looked like she hadn't been listening to anything the vendor said, and instead was frowning as she looked at her hand. He hoped she wasn't pulling a Macbeth on him. "We have an hour before it goes down, so we should be in position."

Vanya didn't respond. Five stopped walking, turning to face his sister.

"Vanya? Vanya! Come on, we have something important to do."

Vanya glanced up sharply at him. "We're different."

Five frowned, examining his sister's features properly for the first time. She seemed just slightly off. Somehow younger.

"We're sixteen again," Vanya observed.

"How do you know?"

"Because you only wore your hair that stupidly when we were sixteen. And none of the scars from when I burnt my hand on our seventeenth 'birthday cake' are on my palms."

Five pursed his lips, his brain adjusting. "I'm sorry. I must have gotten the equations wrong."

Vanya shook her head. "Don't be. We can deal with this later. We need to go help our siblings."

Five nodded, and within the hour, they were camped out on a roof near to where Ben Hargreeves' final mission for the Umbrella Academy was about to take place.

Five had a coffee in hand as he watched the construction site on the street across from them through his pair of binoculars. The Eiffel Tower was less than a mile to their right and it all would have been very picturesque and romantic if he wasn't sitting next to his sister and he wasn't trying to stop one of their brothers from dying. Well, him being the one to do it was an overstatement.

Even if he could do high risk jumps in this state (which he couldn't, since he'd needed to chug a whole coffee before the one currently in his hand as well as consume a tooth-rotting amount of sugary pastries just to keep from passing out, and was still feeling the effects of sleep pull his eyes closed), they still didn't want to be found out by their father. So, the simplest solution was for Vanya to subtly shift the metal beam which had impaled Ben whilst he was distracted with trying to control the Horrors.

Their father's journal had strongly implied that he had been the one to somehow let Ben die, so it was Five's job to spot whatever schemes Reginald had in store.

"They're here," Five murmured, seeing Ben and Luther (the only two assigned to this mission) running into the construction site and confronting the building director, who had been trying to build a superweapon under the guise of a building, and use Paris as well as the five other weapon locations around the world, to essentially start World War 3.

Vanya did not tear her eyes from the area around Ben as he came to a stop on top of a sewer grate. Luther was already climbing the equipment, taking out goons as he made his way to the boss, who was on the top level, directing cranes to try and intercept his path, all of which Luther dodged effortlessly.

A little too effortlessly. Five leaned forward, and swung his gaze around to the boss, whose face was contorted in anger as he hit his controller much harder than necessary. Then his gaze swung down to the lavish van about ten buildings away, with an umbrella embellished on the side. Standing against the side, was Reginald Hargreeves, hitting buttons on his own device and looking entirely too smug as Luther dodged the beams that should have easily hit him.

"Reginald's controlling the beams, or at least fighting the boss's control," Five told Vanya, who nodded, but didn’t take his eyes off Ben.

Five watched as Ben let the Horrors out, allowing them to tear apart any guys who aimed their guns at Luther.

He watched as Luther tore the remote out of the boss's hands, immediately swivelling his head to face Reginald, who was watching the screen in front of them, deliberately counting out the seconds before he pressed one last button.

"Now!" Five warned, turning back just in time to see one of the cranes release its beam, allowing it fall in perfect trajectory to hit Ben right as he was most distracted - when he was containing the Horrors.

Five saw Vanya push her hand out, sending her powers out with a grunt.

Her powers rippled through the air, the wave getting weaker and weaker and only barely hitting the beam hard enough to have it change course, slicing through the ground in front of Ben instead of impaling him.

Vanya leant back, letting out a sigh of relief as Ben jumped away, the Horrors snapping back into his stomach quickly and making him double over.

Five relaxed as well, leaning into Vanya and closing his eyes.

However, oth of them sat bolt upright when the explosion rocked the scene in front of them. They saw a blur, and then Ben's body was crashing against a wall, sliding down it and settling on the ground, unmoving.

Vanya stared at it, horrified, too shocked to even say anything. Five however, picked up his binoculars and looked straight to Reginald. Who's face briefly lit up in triumph before it was replaced by a façade of worry.

Five growled as he swung his head back around to examine the seen, seeing the hole in the ground of the sewer grate that Ben had stepped off in his shock, probably saving his life.

A few moments later, ambulances arrived on the scene, loading up Ben, whilst Reginald dragged Luther over to the Umbrella van to follow, not even joining Ben in the ambulance.

"We failed," Vanya said, a broken, devastated note tinging her voice.

Five immediately dropped his binoculars, putting a hand on her shoulder. "He's alive, V. We didn't fail."

Vanya's lips wobbled and then she was flinging herself into his arms, tears spilling over his cheeks as she sobbed harder. Five patted her back, deftly glad that they had spent so much time training when they were in the apocalypse, or the buildings around them might literally shatter like he'd seen so many times in the early days after Vanya came off her meds.

"Shhh," Five murmured. "We'll get to the bottom of this."

(In the end Five had had to jump them to a remote location, whilst Vanya screamed and cried, the shockwaves she threw out sending up sand in whirlwinds and shaking the very Earth beneath their feet).

\----

Exactly two weeks later, Five and Vanya found themselves in Canada, hiding in the shade of a tree near one of three banks that Reginald Hargreeves owned. They had their hoods drawn up and tinted glasses on their faces so that they would blend seamlessly into the crowd, which was all looking at the Umbrella Academy, who were standing behind Reginald Hargreeves on the steps of the bank.

"I regret to inform the world that Number Six has fallen into a coma as a result of his injuries obtained at the hands of Dr Sinclair. It is unexpected that he will ever wake up from it."

There was a gasp and some murmurs from the crowd before a look from Reginald silenced them.

"However, he will be staying in a protected room in my mansion, and I have ordered his life support to be maintained even after my death, just in case he returns to the waking world."

"Please show respect to his family and do not ask the Umbrella Academy any questions about his death."

With that he nodded, and turned around, the line of children parting for him and then following him up the steps of the bank.

Both Vanya and Five had wet faces after that.

They walked brokenly through the streets on the way back to the sketchy motel they had both been staying at, posing as a young runaway couple.

However, two blocks out from it, Five noticed a strange figure appear at the head of their street. There was nothing really distinctive about this person, except for the fact that they were carrying a briefcase, a badly concealed weapon and were staring straight at them.

Five grabbed onto Vanya's elbow.

"Temps Commission at twelve o'clock."

Vanya glanced up, quickly flitting her eyes away when she noticed the tall, imposing man.

They went to turn back, only to find another one coming from the other side.

Five pulled Vanya into a dark alley that ended up being a dead end. That didn't matter. He didn't plan to escape by running.

"I think we’ve overstayed our welcome," Five observed. "Are you ready?"

Vanya nodded, tightening her grip on her violin, which she carried with her constantly, and slipping the boa out of Five's backpack.

"Let's go join the Golden Generation."

\----

When they jumped back into their timeline, one year had passed in their lives, whilst almost eight had passed in their siblings'.

It had taken longer for the Commission to find them in the heat of the front lines of World War 1, and Five and Vanya had efficiently and mercilessly assassinated the team that had been sent to retrieve them before returning to their next stop on the timeline. And this time, they were determined to get it right.

They both walked in through the front doors of the ominous lab, knowing from Reginald's report that Luther would have already cleared out the front half of the building.

When they entered the building, they found alarms blaring around them. They didn’t have much time.

They wound their way through the building, taking out any men they found with either guns or Vanya's powers. They got to the main lab just in time for Vanya to hurl Luther away from the explosion, and the chemicals that would have forced Reginald to inject him with the serum.

Five walked over to his body whilst Vanya focused on keeping the chemicals contained.

He checked it for a pulse, humming in satisfaction when he found it going strong, and ensuring that no, Luther had not been too stubborn to press the help button when he knew the chemicals could possibly kill others, but had pressed it too late to save himself. He nodded in approval as he heard the bangs of Reginald's black ops retrieval team burst through the building.

He was just about to think about leaving when a shot rang through the room. Five spun around to see Vanya collapsing to the floor with a pained yell. His head swivelled to the source of the shot and he dispatched the man with a bullet to the brain thoughtlessly as he ran over to Vanya, who was pressing a hand over the wound in her leg.

"Time to go," Five announced jumping her out of the building to the alley where they'd stashed their stuff, before teleporting them again to an abandoned building, far away from any other life.

"I'm fine," Vanya assured him, hissing slightly as she pushed herself into a sitting position. "The bullet went straight through, and I'm not bleeding enough for it to have hit anything important."

Five crouched down to examine her leg before noticing a growing dark patch on her abdomen.

"You've pulled your stitches as well," he scowled, quickly pulling the first aid kit out of his pack.

Vanya cried out as soon as he touched her leg, flinching back, which caused another moan of pain to escape her throat.

Five pursed his lips. "I think I should give you the pain killer."

Vanya screwed up her nose. "No."

"I know you don't like it. But it will make the next few hours much easier, V."

Vanya glared at him, her eyes turning white, but Five stayed firm, meeting her gaze evenly. Eventually, Vanya acquiesced, nodding with a sigh as she pressed her eyes shut. 

Five let his lips twitch into a satisfied smile before he administered the opioid loaded pain-killer he'd been saving since he'd traded with the doctor. From there, he made quick work of patching up his sister, making sure the wound was properly cleaned and stitched and letting her use his pack as a pillow. Then, he pulled out one of Vanya's favourites, 'Pride and Prejudice', which Five surprisingly didn't mind, and read it to her, whilst she dozed in and out of consciousness.

A few hours passed when he noticed Vanya start to shiver.

Five frowned. They needed to get somewhere warm and safe. An idea sparked in his mind and Five skimmed through his notes before he found an address.

He packed up their stuff and helped Vanya up.

"Come on, cannon fodder, I have an idea."

Vanya snapped a glare at him, his insult fully waking her up, before he jumped, not giving her time to snap back a reply. His aim was perfect as (almost) always, and they arrived on the front steps of a nice suburban house. Vanya was leaning heavily against him, her arm slung around his shoulders and her head resting on his arm as he helped her towards the door. Injuries always took more out of her when she used her powers a lot, and between Luther, the battle the day before they left (which gave her the shrapnel wound) and the skirmish with the Temps Commission, Vanya was bound to be exhausted. Five even felt himself crashing and he wasn't even wounded.

He leaned forward to knock, hesitating when he heard yelling from inside.

"Jesus, Diego, I could deal with the vigilante shtick. I know it's your form of therapy or whatever, but getting kicked out of the police academy? For fighting? What the hell were you thinking?"

Five winced. The woman's voice was very clear, as if it was coming from the hall right behind the front door, like Diego was about to leave. Five knocked before Diego could reply, and probably say something stupid and needlessly antagonistic.

The door in front of him was practically torn off its hinges.

"What?" Diego asked fiercely, in a leather clad outfit that was impossibly more atrocious and fetishy than the one Five remembered finding him in.

Number Two stopped when he saw who was at his front door. "Five? Vanya?"

Five swallowed. "We need your help."

\----

Eudora Patch saw the moment all the fight went out of Diego, and he opened the door, letting the two people inside, leaning down to scoop up one of them into his arms.

Diego pushed passed her to get to the living room, but the look in his eyes was desperate as he carried a dark haired girl, practically sprinting to put her on the couch. The boy closed the front door behind him, carrying a violin case and a backpack. He paused in front of Eudora, rearranging himself so he could stick out a hand at her, which she took automatically.

"Hi, I'm Five Hargreeves. Diego's brother. I'm assuming you're Eudora Patch."

With that, the boy strode into the living room, dumping the pack on one of the chairs and setting the case gently down on top of it before he bustled over to the girl on the couch.

"I-Is she okay?" Diego asked, staring between Vanya and Five with wide eyes.

The boy nodded. (And really, he was still a boy. He couldn't have been older than eighteen at the most, far too young to be Diego's long lost brother).

"She's fine. It's just the painkillers."

Eudora walked into the room, making sure she kept her eyes on both of the newcomers at all times.

"Those must be some heavy-duty drugs," she observed.

Five snorted. "They better be. I traded a weeks' worth of rations for them."

Eudora frowned. Things weren't adding up.

"What's going on here?"

The boy hesitated, as if choosing his words carefully, but, before he could answer, the girl jerked up with a gasp.

"Five!" she yelped, her hand immediately shooting out to clutch her brother's.

Her gaze swung around until it locked on Diego. She stared at him, wide-eyed.

"Diego? You're alive?"

Eudora's frown deepened at the girl's confused, vulnerable tone.

Five reached out to squeeze the girl's shoulder. "We're in 2012, Vanya. They're all alive."

The girl blinked, rubbing her head as her eyes started to focus. "Oh, yeah. I remember now."

"Hang on. What's happening? Why wouldn't Diego be alive?"

Five and Vanya shared a look, before the boy took a deep breath.

"I was successful when I tried to time travel," he admitted and Diego jerked.

Eudora looked at her maybe-still-boyfriend and saw the almost imperceptible shake in his hands. She went over and stood behind his kneeling form, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Vanya, the little stowaway, managed to hitch a ride with me as I jumped forward. I didn't realise so I kept jumping and jumping until I hit 2019."

Five broke off from there, squeezing his eyes shut and the girl - Vanya - (who had hit him at the stowaway comment) reached out, rubbing his arm, before taking over. "It was…bad. As in like everyone on Earth was dead bad. We…uh… found your bodies."

Diego visibly swallowed when she made their confession.

"It took me nine years to figure out how to go back in time. But I overshot, planted us in 1943 when a scientist called Dr Henderson was inventing Britain's first time machine. We were there for seven months before we were found by the Temps Commission, an organisation dedicated to preserving the timeline. They destroyed our work and then killed Dr Henderson and one of the codebreakers."

Five added the last few words hesitantly and Eudora didn't miss Vanya's reaction to them. The girl squeezed her eyes shut and clutched her hand around a long silver chain around her necklace.

"We jumped around a bit, avoiding the assassins they sent after us, until we eventually got to here."

Eudora frowned. "That doesn't add up. Why do you look so young?"

Diego stiffened, shooting a glare up at her, but Eudora didn't budge. She had always known that Diego had never had a proper perspective when it came to his family, holding the lost ones - Vanya, Five and Ben - on an almost impossible pedestal (the sweet one, the genius and the calm one) whilst condemning the ones remaining. And fucking Reginald Hargreeves (she refused to refer to that man as Diego's father, despite what her boyfriend might say) had traumatised Diego so much that he steadfastly refused therapy, despite Eudora's many suggestions. But Eudora couldn't help Diego when he didn't want to help himself, she refused to do that to herself.

Five pursed his lips and looked like he was about to argue, but Vanya reached out and hit him gently on the shoulder.

"You took us here. We at least owe them the truth," Vanya said, her soft voice firm.

Five glanced at her, visibly hesitating before he nodded.

Eudora listened as Five and Vanya unwound their story of finding their Reginald's journal, of deciding that they would prevent many of the events, of trying (and mostly failing) to save Ben as well as actually (mostly) succeeding in saving Luther.

There were a few beats of silence before Diego shot to his feet.

"I'm going to kill him," he growled.

"No!" Five said, standing as well. "We can't. The Temps Commission will know if we do. They'll change it or do something worse to balance it out."

"Then why did you try to save Ben? And Luther?"

Eudora smiled, unable to contain her pride. Despite what most thought, her boyfriend wasn't an idiot. He was damn good at solving mysteries. Just not at following the rules.

Five huffed in frustration whilst Vanya looked vaguely uncomfortable.

"Luther's not important to the apocalypse timeline. Reginald is," Five insisted. "If we mess with him, they will know. We have to let him die naturally, which knowing him, will be alone and miserable."

Diego still didn't look convinced and Vanya slowly swung her legs off the couch, gripping Five's arm and pulling herself up. Five immediately turned to her, adjusting his arms to steady her.

"We managed to leave one alive the last time the Commission found us. The survivor told us about the ones we can't change too much without them coming after us. We didn't know about how crucial Ben is to the apocalypse before we tried to save him."

Diego stared at his sister, who was meeting his gaze with pleading eyes, shooting him a wounded puppy expression that made even Eudora's heart twist. Damn, she was good.

Diego sighed, looking at the ceiling before he leant forward to hold some of Vanya's weight.

"You should sit back down," he murmured, helping her back onto the couch whilst Five flashed a smirk of triumph.

Vanya nodded, her eyes fluttering.

"You should go to sleep. You need to recharge. You've used your powers too much in the last few days."

Diego snapped his head towards Five. "Powers?"

Five sighed. "I knew there was something we forgot."

Vanya rolled her eyes, and Eudora saw the edges of her eyes become ringed in white as the couches around them rose a few feet off the air for a few seconds before crashing to the floor.

Diego gaped at them, opening and closing his mouth. That's when Eudora decided to step in. It was too late for this, and if they didn't stop dropping more bombshells on him, Diego was going to spontaneously combust.

"We can deal with this in the morning," Eudora said. "I'll call in sick and we can decide what we're going to do moving forward."

She didn't say why Diego would be free. Now wasn't the time to return to that, though the subject wasn't dropped. At least he wouldn't be going out tonight.

"Why don't you help Vanya into the bedroom, Di?" she suggested. "I'll help Five get their stuff in there."

Diego nodded, shooting her a grateful look as he carried out her orders. He always fell back into that habit when stressed.

There were a few moments of awkward silence whilst.

"Ah… We heard your fight," Five confessed, reaching up to rub the back of his head.

Eudora's cheeks warmed. "Oh, yeah. I guess it doesn't surprise you that Diego dropped out."

Five shook his head, smiling wryly. "We didn't realise that was today. Reginald didn't mention the date, just commented about his stubbornness and aggression. It was the last entry about Diego."

Eudora ruminated over that information, whilst Five's eyes cut towards the door, waiting for a second before going on.

"Though, I do wonder why it was today."

Eudora frowned. "What? Diego's always getting into fights. This one was just too big for the academy to ignore."

Five pressed his lips together. "I think it was more than that. I know Luther would have been on the news, and I'm sure that didn't go over well with the recruits. The few scrapings of newspaper I could find revealed that the police never liked us."

Eudora furrowed her eyebrows, and Five went on when it was clear she hadn't gotten her message.

"You know, Reginald was a real ass, but he was right in some of his observations. The only thing that could get Diego more riled up than comparing him to Luther is if you threaten or insult one of us. That's about the only thing we could agree on. I remember Diego getting into fights with civilians whenever they so much as looked at one of us wrong, and the old bastard always used the threat of harming Vanya or Klaus to motivate Number Two."

Eudora froze, looking at the seventeen-year-old.

"You know, you're not what I expected. Diego always described you more…"

"Assholeish?" Five supplied.

Eudora glanced down.

"It's alright," Five chuckled. "He would have been right. I had no patience for anyone that couldn't keep up with or refused to agree with me. 'One track mind' Vanya calls it. Actually, it's Vanya that you can thank for my lack of general dickishness. She wouldn't stand for that sort of treatment. Especially after she came off those drugs. And nine years of waiting could teach anyone patience."

Eudora examined him for a few seconds, suddenly awash with the strong urge to hug the younger-looking boy.

Instead she just nodded, picking up the pack whilst he carefully lifted the violin case.

"I'll keep that in mind."

\----

Diego felt numb. He had ever since about five minutes into his conversation with Five and Vanya, when all of the emotions had crashed inside of him, cancelling each other out and leaving him hollow.

He helped Vanya onto the guest bed, hovering around her worriedly as she relaxed into the headboard.

"It makes me sad to see you like this," Vanya informed him.

Her voice was as soft as he remembered it being, but it held an underlying power and demanded a sought of attention that it had never held before.

"To see me like this?" he asked, his tone hardening defensively as he straightened to loom over his smallest sibling, momentarily forgetting his crippling worry. "You're the one with a literal bullet wound."

Vanya continued as if he hadn't spoken. "I don't think the police academy was the right fit for you. You'd be better working on your own terms as something like a private investigator. I always pictured you as some sort of cross between Sherlock Holmes and Mission Impossible."

Vanya smiled momentarily at her joke and Diego felt his resolve soften.

"But Eudora is the right fit for you," Vanya continued on seriously. "She loves you, but she's too smart to stick with you if you keep being a dick."

Diego didn't question how she knew all this like he wanted to. Instead he watched as Vanya clutched the at the chain around her neck, holding the key and pie symbol tightly in her fist.

"Don't take her love for granted. You never know what might happen," Vanya told him gravely, staring off into the distance. "Make sure you deserve her."

She roused herself out of her stupor enough to look at him, holding out her hand.

"I know why you ignored me now," she informed him, squeezing. "I'm sorry for what Reginald did to you."

Diego's mind flashed to being locked in dark, cold tanks for hours, and Dad threatening to make him use Vanya as target practice.

"But you can't let him rule your life. Let people help you move on. You don't have to be defined by the person he manipulated you to be."

Diego swallowed, squeezing Vanya's hand as Eudora and Five entered the room.

That night, he held Eudora close to him as they drifted off to sleep.


End file.
